Well, today's the day I had to go to traffic court about the speeding ticket I received in August. I put on makeup and everything! I pulled out the last pair of non-jean, non-sweat pants that I had in a drawer, and they don't fit. Too big, yay! They're in the Goodwill bag now. So I wore jeans and vaguely worried that I'd be underdressed.
There was no need for the worry. One mom accompanying her son (no insurance + speeding) was in sweats that clearly weren't meant to be capri length but were above her ankles. A couple of kids were in really ratty jeans. Most of the people there were dressed like me (sweater and nice jeans) or dressed for work.
I arrived early, just after 8 a.m. My hearing notice said 8:30, and I really hate to be late, so I left the house at 8, and it took less than 10 minutes to get there. After 2+ years of living here, I'm still working on the Maryland premise of every place takes a good 20-30 minutes to get to; however, in Olympia, it's more like 5-15 minutes to get most places, but I digress. I enter the building, pass through the metal detector, and go on into the council chambers. I should mention, this is municipal court, not county court. The county courthouse is closer to where I live, but parking's a bitch there, so I would have left at the same time but gotten where I was going later just because of the looking for parking.
The council chambers are what you'd expect for city council. A curved dias at the front of the room where the council members (or the judge) sit, a couple of tables in the front for witnesses/offenders, and a bunch of chairs for the onlookers/offenders. I sit, take the book noted below out of my purse, and settle in to read for a while. There's a girl sitting across the aisle from me clearly bored, so I asked if she wanted a book. She said thanks, so I handed her the other book in my purse, Open Season by Linda Howard which I just got in the mail this morning from PBS. Secretly I hope she has the sense to give it back to me before one of us leaves because I haven't read it yet. I read up to page 107 in my book (yes, I read fast, but it's big print, too), and then we hear the "please rise," and the judge comes in. He's actually kind of cute, in a judicial sort of way. I put my book and my reading glasses away and hope to be entertained for a while.
Note: The girl across the aisle does give me my book back after the first case is done and we both realize how quickly this is going to go. I feel much better knowing it's back in my bag.
The judge obviously has a system. He calls out the names of the offenders and has them sit at one of the tables in the front. For those (it seemed like most except me and one other guy) who got no insurance tickets, he asks if they have insurance now, asks to see proof, and then does what he needs to do. For those who had insurance when they were pulled over, he dismisses the ticket (which still costs a $25 dollar admin fee). For those who did not have insurance at the time they were pulled over, he tells them if he's reducing the fine or not. I note that the fine for no insurance is stiff (Reduced to $200? Ouch! Plus still a speeding ticket on top of that? Double ouch!) and am glad that I had my proof if insurance with me when I got pulled over. One guy is there because of a nuisance pet complaint. Since the infraction, he's spent almost $200 dollars putting an electric fence on his property so that his dog won't go and defile the neighbor's property again. I don't know what the fine started at, but he was reduced to, I think, $65 or $75.
The judge had mentioned before everything started that, in some cases, deferment for the traffic offense was available and you don't even have to go to traffic school for that anymore. If you get that, and don't get a ticket for a year, your record is clean. Unfortunately, deferment is not free. It costs $100 in amin fees. My fine as written was $91, so deferment would cost me more even if I didn't get a reduction. I quickly decide that I'm going to ask for consideration in reducing my fine.
I'm about the 7th or 8th case called. There was at least one name called who wasn't there, which seemed to annoy the judge, but not to the point where he's going to take it out on the rest of us.My name is called, and since I don't have an insurance ticket, I just get to sit down. He asks what I want to do. I tell him my story. "I'm a moron. I was on the way home from my mom's and thinking about how there was no coffee and I had to buy some. I'd appreciate a reduction." He smiles when he hears me say I'm a moron, and says, (paraphrasing) "OK, I'll reduce your fine to $65, see the clerk in the back" I say, "thank you, sir," without adding "may I have another" (I've seen Animal House way too many times) and head for the back of the room. The clerk has me sign the paperwork from the judge and directs me to the Court Services building where I can make payment arrangements.
The court services part of the day was uninteresting, so I won't bore you with the details. What's important about that is that I finished up, got back into my car and then, for the first time since I got there, looked at the clock. The clock in Ollie (my baby) says it's 8:59, which means it's actually 8:55 or 8:56. The clock gets fast on its own; when it gets to the point that it's 20 minutes fast, I set it back to the actual time. I set it back about a month ago, so we're at the 3-4 minutes fast stage. I thought that I was going be there much longer and lose part of the work day, but that's not the case at all.
I was home by 9:15.In conclusion (because I feel like I need one here), my lesson from this is that it pays to go to traffic court. For less than an hour of my time, and some entertainment, my fine was reduced by $26. I feel that was time well spent.
CURRENTLY READING: Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovich
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